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Windows Upgrade Question

My laptop hard drive recently crashed so I'll be installing a new one this week. My question is regarding Windows. I've been running Vista but I figure that if I'm going to upgrade, now is as good a time as any. Is it worth upgrading? The way I see it, my options are:

- Keep Vista
- Upgrade to Windows 7
- Upgrade to Windows 8

Also, is it better to buy the full version of the newer Windows and do a clean install or is it better to reinstall Vista and then upgrade from there? I'm assuming the price will be cheaper for the upgrade version but I would pay more if the full version is more efficient than the upgrade.

Moving on, I would say avoid Windows 8 since you do not have a touchscreen laptop.

Vista, If you made the recovery DVDs, easy install. Free. Vista is not that bad once you get the Service packs installed. SP1 and SP2.
Windows 7 is newer, costlier, no Major benefits as I see it over Vista. It has some improvements but not enough to make spending the money for a new OS worth it.

The Question to ask yourself is a simple one.

Did Vista do everything I wanted? If the answer is yes..............

Good Luck
Roger

Fortune Cookie says: Fortune not Found: Abort, Retry, Ignore?

Sent from my All-In-One Desktop. Perfect for Internet, Not for heavy usage or gaming however.

Hard drive crashed after a small fall. Ran chkdsk for about a week to the point that I can boot and copy most of my files using xcopy from command prompt. Vista still won't boot though. I suppose I could just stick with Vista since I already own it. Just wondering if upgrading was worth it or should I stick with outdated OS. Like I said, might as well ask this question now when I'm putting the new drive in.

Since you're replacing the hard drive, why not get the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade while it is on its introductory extremely low price, install it straight onto the new drive (which you are entitled to do as an upgrade from the Vista) and see if you like it? It's easy to install a classic shell and have the flavor of classic Windows if you prefer. If it suits, you've got the latest OS with long support period, less update downloads than a fresh Vista install etc. If you decide it's not for you, you can re-install the Vista and the Win8 upgrade can still be used at some point in the future.